Devin Hester Still Can't Believe Colts Kicked To Him In Super Bowl XLI

The Colts won Super Bowl XLI, so rarely does anyone from the organization complain about it. However, looking back, Indianapolis made one of the worst decisions in recent Super Bowl history.

On the opening kickoff, the Bears sent Devin Hester back to receive. Hester, as a rookie, led the NFL in both kick return touchdowns (two) and punt return touchdowns (three). But the Colts instructed Adam Vinatieri to kick to Hester anyway. He returned that kick 92 yards to the end zone to give the Bears an immediate 6-0 lead.

"The whole week, it's been in the papers," Hester remembers. "One day, they are kicking to me, the next day they're not. So it's been a big talk between Tony Dungy and the special teams unit. And in some kind of way, they convinced him to kick it to me. I knew the whole week that he didn't want to do it. The special teams guys, they're working hard in practice. They say, 'Listen, coach, this is what we're willing to do. We want to compete, we want to test him.' And they convinced him to kick it to me."

Although the Colts scored six times the rest of the game (and won 29-17), Hester never had a chance to run back a kick again. He received one punt for three yards.

"I knew that from the first 40 yards, I was like 'Let me hurry up and get this in the end zone because I know they're not kicking the ball to me no more,'" Hester says with a laugh.

Hester went on to become the NFL leader in special teams touchdowns with 20 (five kick returns, 14 punt returns, one missed field goal return). His Super Bowl legacy lives on in 2018 with Pizza Hut. If any touchdown (not just a kick return) is scored with the first 14 seconds of the game -- the time it took Hester to run back his kick 11 years ago -- all Hut Rewards members will win a free pizza.